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Dreamforce: Uber CEO Tells How the Cloud Made Ride-Sharing Possible

In a wide-ranging interview with Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, Uber CEO Travis Kalanick talks about driverless cars and why his ride-sharing service is possible only because of cloud computing.

SAN FRANCISCO—What’s next for Uber, the popular ride-sharing service that’s disrupting the taxi industry in countries around the world? CEO and cofounder Travis Kalanick told attendees at Salesforce.com's Dreamforce conference that he’s looking forward to "the ride ahead" even if the visibility as to what's next is a bit "foggy".

That's because new technology always brings change and no one can predict how society will react to those changes. Kalanick told the story of how when the first cars appeared on streets alongside horses there was a rule that someone had to walk in front of the car waving two flags to warn people a car was coming. "Eventually technology finds a way" and the good in the technology is why it succeeds, he said.

Now there's a lot of buzz about driverless cars, an area that Uber is making deep investments in, but how that plays out remains to be seen. Driverless cars could be seen as a threat to companies like Uber since they eliminate the need for human drivers, but Kalanick said it made sense for Uber to start researching the technology.

"It's a little bit disruptive to our model, but as a technology company I have two choices, be part of the future or resist it," said Kalanick. "[Driverless cars] aren't going to happen all at once or at scale. But ten, or fifteen years out, whatever the number is, there is going to be a need for leaders to help with the transition and there will be lots of opportunities."

Further reading

Earlier Kalanick said Uber's goal is to offer the most reliable rides at the lowest price and quickest service and, as a spinoff effect, get more cars off the road to reduce traffic and pollution.

Driverless cars will help that. "There's a lot of promise in it. Thirty thousand people in the U.S. alone die in car accidents every year," he said. "What if that number was zero? Part two, what if there was no traffic? What if algorithms drove cars? There would be no traffic and the price would go down. Think of all the underserved areas and rural areas that would have access to transportation."

Tech Drives Uber

It's a particularly busy time for Uber in its home town of San Francisco with the giant Dreamforce conference this week expected to attract upwards of 150,000 attendees.

When demand outstrips the supply of Uber drivers, that's when the technology behind the ride-sharing service clicks into high gear. "We do what we can to get as many cars as possible to riders," said Kalanick.

Where there's higher demand the Uber app automatically also raises prices, but that's not an ideal outcome. "We don’t want higher prices, we prefer them to be low," he said. "We will do whatever on the technology side with algorithms and operations side to make sure our customers have a quick pick up and the lowest price as possible to get from point A to point B."

Uber recognizes, for example, that to compete with taxis a driver often can't be more than 15 minutes away from a potential fare. Real-time demand prediction is a key aspect of Uber's technology.

David Needle

Based in Silicon Valley, veteran technology reporter David Needle covers mobile, bi g data, and social media among other topics. He was formerly News Editor at Infoworld, Editor of Computer Currents...

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